Plant-based Homesteading and Sustainable Living

Princess

I’ve given you the complete rundown on the cats, but have never done a formal introduction of the lovely Miss P.

Princess came to us in January of 2005 from a nearby animal shelter. At only 6 weeks old she was dumped on their doorstep in the middle of the night, literally sick as a dog (vomiting and bleeding from both ends). When they took her to be put down the next morning, the vet offered to give her 3 days of free care to see if she’d pull through. Thankfully, it turned out that she had the worst case of worms they’d ever seen, and not one of the more deadly things they’d assumed, and she recovered beautifully.

She lived with a wonderful foster family for a few weeks while she was healing (and while they screened the long list of potential adoptees). When she was 9 weeks old we were lucky enough to be chosen to bring her home (click here to learn more about her name and to see a baby picture). As you can see in the above photo, she adores her daddy and loves nothing more than to sit in his lap, (she doesn’t seem to realize that she’s not a cat).

Being a pound puppy, we’re not exactly sure what breed(s) she is, but we’re pretty sure based on the photos that we’ve seen here and elsewhere that she’s an English Shepherd. Her temperament matches the descriptions as well. (Any experts on the breed care to weigh in on this?). Because of her red hair and long socks, I wanted to call her Pippi, after my childhood hero. As you’ll read in the first link, that didn’t work out (she already answered to Princess, and Bee couldn’t understand why anyone would ever want to change her name when she already had such a great one!), but I still sometimes call her Pippi Puppy, which has lately been shortened to “P” Pup.

She is one of the sweetest, most loving dogs I’ve ever known. Her puppy-hood was a bit of a challenge because she was a total spaz and didn’t have much interest in doing what we wanted her to do (though she did sleep through the night right from the start), but she has calmed down nicely and has even learned some manners. She still gets overly excited when anyone comes over to visit, but you couldn’t ask for a more loving companion. She adores her kids and will run to their side at the first sign of upset, giving as many cuddles and kisses as it takes to make things better. Princess’ favorite activity is swimming, and unfortunately that means that she will lay down in any body of water that happens to be handy, often the muddiest, boggiest mud puddle she can find, and usually right as we’re ending a walk and about to get in the car. Her love of water makes her an amazing lifeguard, however, and she watches the kids tirelessly from shore, swimming out to tow them back in if she thinks they’ve gone too far on their floaties. She’s become such a part of our family that we can’t imagine life without her. Click here to see a picture of her with her best friend, Baxter. To see some more cute puppy pics, check out Sweetnicks’ Weekend Dog Blogging on Sunday nights for a roundup of other bloggers’ canine companions.